Presidential Candidates Will Address
9,000 Educators as Part of NEA’s Annual Meeting

WASHINGTON — The National Education Association was created in Philadelphia,
Pa., in 1857. Over 9,000 NEA members will visit the city over the Fourth
of July holiday to celebrate the Association’s 150th anniversary and to
conduct the Association’s Representative Assembly. Along with setting NEA’s
agenda for the coming year, delegates will hear eight presidential candidates,
seven Democrats and one Republican, lay out their visions for the future
of America’s public schools.

Delegates to the NEA Representative Assembly are elected locally by
NEA’s 3.2 million members to participate in the Association’s pre-eminent
decision-making body, the world’s largest democratic deliberative body.

Led by NEA President Reg Weaver, delegates will discuss, debate and
vote on critical issues facing public education, such as teacher recruitment
and retention and education funding. A major topic at the NEA Representative
Assembly will be No Child Left Behind, the Bush administration’s controversial
education reform program up for Congressional reauthorization this year.

Highlights of the 2007 NEA Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly:

June 26

More than 300 volunteers will help paint, landscape and clean Gotwals
Elementary School as part of Outreach To Teach, starting at 7:30 a.m. Gotwals
is located on 1 East Oak Street in Norristown, Pa. The NEA Student Program
started Outreach To Teach in 1996 to give back to a local school in the
city hosting the Annual Meeting.

June 29

Delegates will take time out to read to local children as part of NEA’s
Read Across America, a year-round program to promote adults and children
reading together on a regular basis. Reg Weaver and the Cat in the Hat
will read to students at the Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine Street,
from 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

July 2

Reg Weaver, NEA president, will address more than 9,000 delegates, and
outline tactics to help teachers and educators provide great public schools
for every child, regardless of race or background. Weaver’s keynote address
will take place on the convention floor.